Though the Highland City Council all but killed the giant Harmony housing project in August, the development lingers in the campaigns of the two candidates running for the the council’s District 4 seat in November’s election.

Newcomer Gilda Gularte, who is taking on long-time Councilman John P. Timmer, said she was inspired to run because of her opposition to the council’s initial approval of the 3,600-house development.

Highland City Council Districts are pictured on this map. Voters in District 4 will get to vote for a candidate in November 2018. (Courtesy of city of Highland)

“Even through it’s off the ballot, it’s still a major concern in our community,” said Gularte, who works in accounting.

She echoed the judge’s concerns of environmental issues for the project, which included impacts on flooding and wildlife habitat, and an environmental report that lacked proper scope.

Timmer said the project was going to create some “truly needed” housing.

“The bottom line is I thought it was going to be good because it was creating a housing project that people could move up to,” he said.

Gularte questions how much it would cost Highland residents.

“We do need development, we just need sound development, reasonable development that will benefit the whole community, not be a hardship,” she said.

Timmer said the development would have paid for itself.

The project was required to provide funding to local agencies for roads and infrastructure improvement to handle the additional traffic, he said. The developer also would have had to pay for police and fire protection, and a school.

“My position was the project was going to pay 100 percent of its own way, there was going to be no subsidies from the citizens of Highland,” he said.

Fiscal responsibility is one of his priorities. The retired firefighter touted his “pay as you go” philosophy: “Every project we do we save up the money before hand. We don’t borrow money.”

This is Timmer’s 26th year on the council, and he has spent five years as mayor.

Another of his top priorities is public safety – increasing police and firefighter services as funding becomes available.

“If we’re not safe in our houses and our shopping centers and where we work, then other things are not so important,” he said.

A top priority for Gularte is boosting civic engagement.

“One of the big issues is also transparency,” said the 20-year resident.

She said she would like to see video of the meetings streamed online to make them more accessible to residents.

“We’re not in the Stone Age,” she said.

She cited a recent trash contract and rate hike approved by the council that put trash bills on property tax rolls and extended the contract with the hauler by 10 years.

Calling it “just another giveaway to a corporation,” she said her conversations with residents have revealed that many were not aware the contract was being negotiated.

“I think it’s essential that we get more people involved,” she said.

There will be no election for the council’s District 2 seat, which was also up in November, as no challengers chose to run against Councilwoman Anaeli Solano. In August, the council chose to re-appoint her instead of holding an election.

A lifelong Inland resident, Jennifer Iyer started working in journalism at The Press-Enterprise in 2000. She has written (and shot photos for) stories on wildflowers, camping with a dog, and many community events, and as a videographer covered wildfires and war games to blimp rides and camel racing from Temecula to Big Bear Lake, Twentynine Palms to Jurupa Valley.